Life in Beta

Can I just tell you how excited I am about WP 3.0 being released today?! Of course, I’m also intimidated by what this means as far as relearning theme design to take advantage of the new features (the menu system, for instance). Maybe I’ll have some time this weekend to experiment.

Unfortunately, WP 3.0 seems to have broken my prior theme (Mystique by Digital Nature), so I’m going with the new default template, Twenty Ten, for now. Perhaps I’ll play with some customizations till I have time to develop a new theme from scratch…

I’ve been with Verizon Wireless since … oh, the beginning of time practically. My current phone is the Blackberry Curve 8330. It’s cute. It’s pink. It is also discontinued. Verizon has moved on to the Blackberry Curve 8530, which is a lovely shade of lavender and quite a lot smaller than this one.

This wouldn’t be an issue, except my much-loved little 8330 has decided to give me problems (again). A few months ago, it was the screen that screwed up. Because they no longer have my phone in the store, they had to FedEx me a new phone from corporate and then I had to activate it at home and FedEx my old (broken) phone back to them.

Now it’s the trackball. It will scroll every direction except UP. Left, right, and down, I’m good. Heck, I can even do diagonals. But UP? No way.

I took it in to my local Verizon store last night and they told me that sometimes they have extra trackballs laying around and they could pop it out and replace it but that right now they didn’t have any extras and to call or stop in again later. (UGH.) They also told me that as of February 12th, I’ll be down to 1 year left on my previous 2-year contract, which means I could get a new phone at the new 2-year activation discount. (Of course, making my contract period 3 years by doing so.)

So, I’m weighing out the options …

1. Go back in and see if they (a) have gotten any extra trackballs and can fix it, or (b) if they can do the FedEx replacement thing again. (Can I tell you how much I don’t want to do this, especially being that I’m going out of town Thursday and would like to have a functional phone?)
2. Make do with my broken phone till February 12th and trade it in on the Motorola Droid. I’m not a huge fan of the Droid, but I have a few friends and coworkers who seem to love theirs. I am a fan of the Android operating system, I just don’t care much for the Motorola Droid itself. It feels cheaply-made to me (compared to an iPhone, for instance), and it also feels clunky and unpolished. The squared off edges and QWERTY keyboard on it just make me think of my original LG “enV” from 5 or 6 years back.
3. Take option 1 above, then hold out till the Nexus One comes to Verizon (rumored “spring 2010″). Again, the Android operating system, which is great, but a much more slick piece of hardware. I know there have been some complaints about Google not offering support for the phone, but by the time it comes to Verizon, I anticipate that will have been resolved.
4. Take option 1 above, then hold out till the iPhone comes to Verizon. It’s been rumored off and on and off and on again. It may never happen. But have I mentioned how much I want a freakin’ iPhone!? (HELLO, Apple-fangirl here!)
5. Buy out my Verizon contract (currently waiting to hear back from customer service on the exact fee to do this) and move my number to AT&T and get an iPhone. I’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time. I even talked about doing it as a birthday present to myself next month … maybe I ought to just DO IT. (Only problem being, my whole family is on the Verizon network and will be peeved at me for screwing up their “in-calling” … hmph.) The one other bummer being that there’s pretty strong rumors that there will be a new iPhone coming out this summer, though whether it will be on AT&T or Verizon remains to be seen.

So what do I do? I’ve been lusting over an iPhone for … well, since they came out. I’m with Kevin Rose in his assessment that Palm and Blackberry are pretty much dead and that Android and iPhone are going to rule the smartphone marketplace. I’ve been waiting for the little nudge to bite the bullet and get the iPhone. Maybe I’ll just go for it…

I don’t really pretend to be much of a photographer. (Ok… well, I’m lying. I do pretend to know what I’m doing. But if pressed, I fully admit that I don’t.) I have a couple good friends who are very talented photographers and I attempt to follow in their footsteps. I don’t have any delusions of being a real photographer, though. I just like to take pretty pictures.

That being said, I got some new photography-related goodies in the mail from Amazon today!

The not-so-exiting items: Sanyo Eneloop batteries (for my flash) and an extra 4GB compact flash card.

The exciting item: a new lens, the Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6.

I haven’t purchased a new lens in a long, long time. The Sigma is a budget-priced lens at only $159. (The equivalent Canon lens is over $500.) Of course, like most lenses, you get what you pay for. However if you look at the sample photos taken with the Sigma lens and posted on its Amazon page, I think it gets some pretty good results for the price! I’m extremely eager to try it out and I’ll be sure to let you know my review after I have a few days to experiment.

I’m planning on packing up my dSLR when I go to Pennsylvania next week. Granted, I often pack it and rarely use it. I’m determined this year to force myself to carry it with me and take photos, though.

Experimenting with the “macro” setting on the new lens.

Hence why I just bought the new lens, batteries, and extra CF card — I’m trying to inspire myself to take more pictures.

The unfortunate truth is, I don’t know how many more Christmases I’ll have with my grandparents, and I want to document everything. I want beautiful pictures so I can remember the colors and textures and sights of the holiday season with my family.

I just hope that my very amateur skills can capture those precious memories. I’m going to try, anyway.

Aw, crap. I really thought I had it all figured out. When I had a little extra money to burn, I thought I’d order an Amazon Kindle.

A couple people I know have them and adore them. I’ve been lusting after one, trying to convince myself it wasn’t necessary. At the same time, I’ve been buying and devouring books left and right lately and have been wondering if killing all those trees and taking up that much space on my bookshelves really makes sense when I could just invest in an e-book reader?

(I’m really good at justifying fun purchases.)

So then today Barnes & Noble has to go and bring it with their new Nook e-book reader.

Way to complicate my decision, B&N!

I’m not overly impressed by the Nook’s touch screen. In general (aside from the iPhone), touch screens just serve to piss me off. I’ve never had luck with them on any other device.

Also… the name “nook” is pretty lame.

There are a few features I like: You can put PDFs on it without having to send them to the device (for a small fee, as you do with the Kindle). I’d use this to carry around my knitting patterns (’cause I’m a big dork like that). I like that it has an expansion slot for more memory (though I can’t even imagine filling the Kindle’s 2GB). And I suppose it’s nice that it has wi-fi in addition to its AT&T cellular network connection.

Pricing on e-books between the Kindle book store and B&N e-book store are pretty similar. However, on B&N’s site, why is the “boxed set” of Sookie Stackhouse novels more expensive in e-book format than they are for paperback? (Like, $10 more expensive!? Am I reading that right?)

I’m stumped. However the Amazon.com fangirl in me is yelling “screw B&N!” Maybe if I’m lucky this will result in a Kindle 2 price drop? (Though they just dropped their price recently.) Wishful thinking.